Snowden exchanges encrypted messages with father

NSA leaker, Edward Snowden, has directly communicated with his father for the first time since fleeing the US. The relatives talked on an encrypted Internet chat on Wednesday, ignoring warnings from lawyers of possible interception by US intelligence.

The move was criticized by Edward Snowden’s legal representative
in Russia, Anatoly Kucherena, who urged the family to refrain
from such forms of communications until father Lon Snowden
arrives in Moscow.

"I understand the feelings of Edward and his father. It
appears that they have turned out to be more powerful than the
concern for safety,” Kucherena told Interfax news agency.
“But I would recommend that they won’t get in touch via the
Internet anymore and wait until meeting in person."

The decision to use the web to get in touch with his son was made
by Lon Snowden “independently, in spite of legal advice from
his attorneys,” an unnamed source with knowledge of the issue
told ITAR-TASS news agency.

The source added that besides fears of interception by US
security services such form of communication makes it problematic
to verify if Lon Snowden was actually talking to his son or
somebody else.

The American lawyers insist that all communications within the
Snowden family should happen through Kucherena’s mediation as it
was done previously.
“We must understand that security is the No.1 issue in his
[Snowden’s] case” as the whistleblower has the world’s
largest state after him, the lawyer stated previously.

Snowden Sr. has already received a Russian visa, saying that he’s
planning to come to Moscow this week, without naming the exact
date.

Kucherena, previously, stated the NSA leaker will make the
important decision on his future only after a family council with
his father.

Edward Snowden has received a one-year asylum in Russia on August
1 after spending over a month in the transit zone of Moscow’s
Sheremetyevo airport.

The former CIA employee arrived in the Russian capital on June 23
on a flight from Hong Kong where he fled just before secret US
government surveillance programs were revealed to the public.